Well I think we must be enjoying the first day of Spring.

I was going to light another fire to burn off the bits of the heap that didn’t go last week but I noticed that one of the near neighbours had their washing on the line in the garden. It occurred to me that they might resent taking the clothes in only to find them smelling of wet leaves so I left the fire for another day.

I cleaned out some of the pond instead with a view to hopefully getting it ready for frog spawn in a week or so’s time. The reeds have started to take it over so I spent half an hour dipping my hands in and puling out clumps of roots, old leaves and general gunk from last year. As I did so I unearthed the good deep methane smell of well rotted wet vegetation. I also found a pair of sunglasses that had been lost in there about three years ago. I also unearthed the one remaining goldfish. It lurked at the edges probably disturbed by the clouds of mud and odd bubbles that burped up quietly to the surface. We shall have to see what the frogs make of it.

Before that lunch was a couple of steaks from the farmers market. I resisted the temptation to buy myself a great single rib of beef. It was probably a bit extravagant for a Saturday lunch. The steaks were grilled for a couple of minutes on a high heat, left to rest for another couple of minutes and then stuffed, bloody and rare, into a baguette with rocket salad and some slices of onion.

Everything feels tight in the garden as is the sudden burst of warmth, the sun being out until late afternoon and the clear blue sky have filled all the dead wood of winter to bursting.

Last week I wrote about finding where the mice live. Unfortunately the cats have found them to and over the course of the last few days we have been treated to a procession of corpses all left out back on the patio. I am not too bothered about the mice but I aimed a kick at the cats when they left a wren out there as well not much bigger than old penny piece.

This morning it would be good to share with you the smell that is coming off the large bunch of basil I bought from the grocers this morning. Sadly the technology is not quite up with that yet and you will have to make do this a picture. We will have this evening with aubergines, tomatoes and lots of pasta.

‘Count your blessings,’ he said. ‘And don’t stand there and tell me you don’t have any of the feckin’ things. Any man standing here with a pint in his hand has a blessing to start with  that’s good enough to top any list and from that start you can make enough to take that frown off your face.’

Last night I managed to find something that kept most of the kids satisfied most of the time. It was salty and bad for us and was set upon greedily with dirty fingers and greedy eyes. Plates were clean.

It was a large plate of Doritos with goodies on top. The goodies were some pieces of chicken that had been chopped up and fried with peppers, onion and garlic, tomatoes and cheese. It all went into the oven to warm up and for the last few minutes I put under the grill so that the Doritos started to crisp up and the cheese melted.

We ate it with sour cream, chilli sauce and gusto.

I could have done with a picture but we were too busy eating.

Listening to Ella Guru – the best band ever no-one has head of!

After the blue sky of yesterday the weather turned back to normal and it has been raining for most of the day. It has not been a hard rain but it has been insistent – carrying on so even when it stops for a few minutes the air is still heavy with it and everything feels wet. Despite all that wet the fire I lit yesterday in the garden was still going and there were wreaths of smoke curling up from it. But no sign of the mouse.

Outside I planted out the sorrel seeds and four rows of onions. Under the cover of the greenhouse I planted the tomato seeds, beetroot and the padrón peppers. The bugger will be going out to water them over the next few weeks. But they are all underway.

In the meantime I cooked the beef ribs. As promised from yesterday they were rubbed with some English mustard, salt and pepper and then put in to roast. For the first twenty minutes or so the oven was as hot as it could go. Once everything was spluttering it got turned down for the next hour of rather more benign cooking.

The beef was just for Galen and me. I am setting myself the task of cooking something over the weekend that all the women in the family will eat. This weekend I delved into an old Sainsbury’s book The Almost Vegetarian Cookbook and something that I have vague recollections of cooking years ago before there were any children – cannelloni stuffed with spinach in white wine and gruyère sauce. The sauce was finger licking the pan good but the younger women in the family still insisted on forking the bits of spinach out of the cannelloni before eating the pasta and sauce.

We have spent the weekend listening to Nigerian funk and Fela Kuti. Kids are bemused.